Rosamund Felsen Galler
y presents the fourth solo show of new sculptural work by
Patrick Nickell. The exhibition “Letting Go” is comprised of color saturated large tabletop sculptures in which Ni
ckell loosens his tight hold on strict abstraction and allows his figurati
ve tendencies to emerge creating a new body of work steeped in fantasy. Nic
kell continues his exploration of spontaneous line\, deviating from the cu
rved flowing forms of his previous sculptures\, by abruptly bursting the p
laster sculptures at their ends. This exposure of tangled wire and burlap g
ives way to distinguishable forms: a falling figure\, raised fists\, protr
uding tongue. These forms are perhaps the explicit manifestation of the ar
tist’s struggle to find his voice outside the realm of implicit abstraction
.

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Patrick Nickell is
a Los Angeles-based artist. His work is included in\, but not limited to\,
the public collections of the Laguna Art Museum\, Laguna Beach\, CA\; Ber
keley Art Museum at the University of California\, Santa Barbara Museum of
Art\, CA\; and in Los Angeles at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)\, L
os Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the Luckman Fine Arts Gallery
at California State University. Nickell is also Associate Professor of Des
ign Foundation at Woodbury University in the School of Media\, Culture and
Design\, Los Angeles. In 2011 he was awarded the Faculty Development Grant
at Otis College of Art and Design.